AIB fund managers are sitting pretty
Despite the collective hand-wringing over severance packages at AIB, one group seems to find the bank compellingly attractive. Nearly one-quarter of AIBIM's 100 staff have opted to stay with the mothership if the fund manager is bought by Prescient, the South African outfit that is in hot, if very protracted, pursuit.
I hear 28 of the AIBIM staff are on contracts with AIB Group, rather than the fund manager, so can't be forced to jump. Some 23, including a swathe of seniors, have opted to stay put. It must be quite disheartening for Prescient. Legal & General, the insurer, has indicated that it is pulling its distribution contract with AIBIM. The AIB pension fund, which accounts for more than a chunk of the €8.5 billion under management, has yet to commit. Meanwhile, a delay in securing regulatory approval has sparked a swirl of speculative rumours.
Any suggestions of trouble were denied stoutly by Carey Millerd, Prescient deputy chairman and its man on the ground here. "All things being equal we have no indicator from the regulator that it shouldn't go through as envisaged initially," he said.
As to the fleeing fund managers? He is "sad", but pragmatic. "There would be personal reasons and I think it has something to do with their contracts with AIB, which are very generous." One can imagine.
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Weston sale takes off
Friday was the deadline for bids for Weston Executive Airport, and it looks as if the sale is set to fly. Domestic and international offers have been received for the group that was part of Jim Mansfield's empire. It is understood the bids for Ireland's busiest private airport came in at around the €3m guide price.
The sale is being handled by Savills for Kieran Wallace of KPMG, the Nama-appointed receiver. The price tag marks a bit of a fall to earth, given that Mansfield paid €13m for the aerodrome back in 2000 and later bought more land, bringing it to 256 acres. Still, it's a long time since whirling 2006, when Weston recorded €3m in turnover and 80,000 aircraft movements. By 2010 this was down to 50,000.
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McKillen hotel case in High Court
Paddy McKillen, the usually low-profile developer, will take the limelight this week in London's High Court as he battles the Barclay twins seeking to push him out of the Maybourne group of top-notch hotels. McKillen will appear to outline his various fascinating allegations.
Among them is that the Barclays, who bought financier Derek Quinlan's Maybourne debt, provided financial support to Quinlan's family as an "inducement" to do a deal. Quinlan is up in week two. My learned friends say Sir David Barclay, who McKillen alleges was a "shadow director" of the vehicle that bought Quinlan's debt, has sought a medical exemption.
Oyster family shell not be moved
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Galway's prominent Moran family, owner of the famous Moran's of the Weir near Kilcolgan, is seeking to shuck off a receiver appointed by Allied Irish Banks to a substantial portfolio of investment properties.
Willie and Sheila Moran and their son Michael, who is the seventh generation of the family to run the seafood restaurant and a six-time winner of the National Oyster Opening Championship, issued proceedings against AIB and the receiver Jim Luby of McStay Luby last week.
AIB appointed Luby as receiver over commercial and residential properties in Galway, Leitrim and Dublin.
The move did not affect Moran's of the Weir, the 250-year-old family pearl where the broadcaster Gay Byrne's brother Al introduced draught Guinness for the 1966 oyster festival.
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A report from Dublin's Temple Bar, traditional hotbed of St Patrick's Day drinking activity: hotelier and publican Martin Keane expects festival business to be up 20% on last year. Friday brought a corporate lunch for more than 100 people, his first of the year. "I saw the first green shoot," he declared. "I was going absolutely ballistic, I hadn't seen a corporate credit card, I was cracking up." Visitors were spending, said Keane, who planned music until 2.30am in his Oliver St John Gogarty, to encourage them along gently.